8 Alternatives to Sending Your Child to a Pricey Summer Camp

Summer is almost upon us. That means your kids or teens may be gearing up to spend the next couple of months watching TV and YouTube clips and playing computer games while you slog away at work, feeling guilty that they aren’t doing something more productive and fun, like going away to that almost mythical place, a yearly ritual for many kids: summer camp.

Unfortunately, not every parent can afford a traditional summer camp, especially if we’re talking the overnight variety in which your kid bonds with a bunch of other kids and plays hilarious pranks on the camp director. (If you’ve never seen Bill Murray’s movie “Meatballs,” rent it now.) According to stats from the American Camp Association, the weekly cost of an overnight camp averages about $690, but as any parent who has done a little research knows, the costs can eclipse that, exceeding $1,000 a week.

Fortunately, it’s possible to find a happy medium between sending your kids to an overnight summer camp for a week or month and parking them in front of a device all day. So if you’re looking for lower-cost activities for your kids this summer, here are some ideas, ranging from different types of day camps to things you simply may have not considered.

Try your local park system. Josh Lindenmuth, chief information officer of a payroll company in Baltimore, says that he and his wife, who both work, have two elementary school-age kids, whom they send to programs offered by their local parks.

“The county and township parks offer full-day programs that cost less than day care, so we actually save money,” Lindenmuth says. Additionally, he says, the programs are “well-structured, well-staffed and give our children a chance to play outside for many hours all summer. There are dozens of programs like this in my county, so I always recommend that other parents look for similar programs around them.”

Look into a STEM summer program. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, with curriculum developed by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, has a summer program called Camp Invention, which would seem to go against our “no camp” theme, but it is fairly affordable for some parents. There are 1,200 Camp Invention programs, held at schools throughout the U.S., so there’s a decent chance one is going on in your area.

For $220 a week, the five-day program runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and offers first- through sixth-graders the chance to build three-dimensional video games, design racing karts and learn how to do things like design invention prototypes and ultimately sell them. For more information, check out campinvention.org.

Search Meetup.com. This would require parental involvement, but still may lead to something fun for you and your kids to do during the summer. Meetup.com is designed for people of all ages to find like-minded folks to do activities with. For instance, if you like books, you might use the site to find a book club in your area. And if you’re a parent with young children looking to meet other parents with young children, you might find a nature playgroup or a group for parents and kids who like going to the zoo.

Try Blayz.com. If you have teenagers in high school, and you would like them to do something more useful with their time than whatever it is they’re doing, this site could come in handy. It can lead you to everything from summer camps to internships and volunteering opportunities, all of which may build your kid’s character and his or her college resume. (It’s a new site, having started in January. So you may not find opportunities in every state, but it’s worth checking out.)

Seek your local church. Some churches have day camps. At least, that’s what Cherie Lowe, an Indianapolis resident and blogger at QueenofFree.net, discovered last year. Her daughter attended three sports-themed day camps last summer at a large church in her area.

“It only cost $50 a week,” Lowe says, adding that the camp lasted from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and concluded with a big pizza party on the final day.

Visit your library. It’s hardly a camp, and especially if your kids are young, you’ll probably have to stick around to supervise them, but both Lowe and Baynard vote for checking out your local library, which may have free or cheap summer reading-related activities.

Tap your local university. Many universities have recognized that with their unique resources and lower attendance during the summer, why not have a summer camp for the youngsters? They’re often inexpensive. For instance, Michigan State University offers a five-day 4-H Animal and Veterinary Science Camp in June, for 13- to 16-year-olds, for $300. The University of Cincinnati has a $200-a-week summer camp.

Still, know that not all universities and colleges offer inexpensive summer camps. For instance, if you live in Providence, Rhode Island, and call up Brown University and ask about what looks like a very cool science-themed summer camp for middle schoolers, you’ll discover the price for the two-week camp is close to $4,000.

Create your own summer camp. This is one of those ideas that could be the lamest thing ever, if you do it badly, but it could work out very well if you have some free time yourself — and if you take the approach suggested by Kanesha Baynard, a Denver-based life coach with an 8-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter.

She advises finding five other parents with kids close in age to your own, and who also have free time. Figure out what you and the other parents are skilled at, and what resources you have at your disposal, Baynard suggests. For instance, maybe you’re pretty artistic and could teach your child and the other kids how to draw or paint, and perhaps another parent has a swimming pool and wouldn’t mind supervising a bunch of children for a week. Getting the idea?

“The point is, each parent has a level of expertise in some area, and they can easily create a day camp experience for the group of kids,” Baynard says.

Sure, her idea involves you playing camp counselor and being run ragged for five days, but then you’d have four other children-free weeks in which your kids would be busy, and you’d be able to have time to work, clean … or recover.

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8 Alternatives to Sending Your Child to a Pricey Summer Camp originally appeared on usnews.com

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